Lost Time
by JPNCIS
Summary: Things had changed. A month ago they were close, spending nights in his basement, drinking together. She was invited to all his poker nights but that was a month ago. What had changed? What was right in front of them?


Another thought popped in my head. What would happen if they were sleep deprived. Unsure if there'll be more to this.

All mistakes are mine, I own nothing but my own sleep deprived brain.

Enjoy!

. . . .

Jack was done. She couldn't look at another file or type up another eval. It was only Tuesday but they had worked right through the weekend. She'd just gotten back from observation where she watched Gibbs got for round two with their suspect but this time they had him. Phone logs, security camera and finger prints all matched to the guy. They had finally gotten a sliver of a lead which led to the jack pot.

Jack flopped down on her couch and pulled the blanket over her tucking it in close. She hadn't slept since maybe Saturday night. Maybe she got an hour of sleep yesterday when Gibbs mentioned if she didn't get some rest she wouldn't be much help. It was cut short when he needed an assist.

They got a call Thursday morning about a shipping container that had washed ashore at daybreak. Gibbs almost dropped his phone when he got the next bit of news. Jack knew because they were all in the bullpen just arriving at work. The typical banter getting thrown back and forth between Ellie and Nick before they noticed Gibbs falter and sit down.

No matter which way you swing it, it hit the team hard. The shipping container was pried open and they found 15 dead bodies. All women from the age of 16 to 25. That soured the mood for the next four days before they found a lead. It was a new human smuggling ring, getting girls from across the country and going up to Canada before shipping them across the world.

Jack was helping any way she can but it was all too much by Saturday morning. They had gotten no where. She had helped Ellie and McGee do background on all the girls and that led to more women who had gone missing over the past two years. How no one had connected the dots was beyond her. The only reason they had kept the case was because Gibbs and Vance fought like hell to get the job done considering no other agency had any leads. The other was two women in the shipping container were petty officers on leave after their last deployment.

Jack groaned and rolled over on her couch trying to push the last few days out of her memory and especially the dirtbags smug smile down in interrogation. Well she hoped it wasn't smug anymore. She'd left when Gibbs was raging at the guy and his façade had started to falter. She didn't need to see the rest, she needed to rest.

The coffee was starting to wear off and the bags under her eyes were huge. She would've gone straight home but her legs were so heavy and she was having a really hard time keeping her eyes open. Jack rolled back over, her back facing her door and tried to find some sleep. If anyone with a brain at NCIS right now so much as opened her door she would shoot them. Everyone knew about the case they had been working and gave them all space to get the job done. So she hoped no one would come searching for her help for the rest of the day.

Her hopes were dashed when not more than five minutes later someone knocked and came steaight in. Jack didn't move, hoping if she at least pretended to sleep they would go away. Although this person didn't say a word just sat down in her desk chair. Who had the balls to do that? She couldn't help it and she rolled over opening one of her eyes to see who was dumb enough to interrupt her sleep and sit in her chair.

She laughed to herself. Of course it was Gibbs. The one person who could get away with such a gutsy move.

"You got balls." Jack groaned stretching and moving to sit up.

"Thought it was safer to sit over here than try find a spot on the coffee table." Gibbs smirked. If you looked at him you wouldn't know he hadn't slept for the past three days but Jack could tell. He was slower to keep his tough marine façade up, giving away how he was feeling on occasion.

"Smart, Cowboy." She yawned and placed the blanket off to the side.

"He's being processed now. Nothing more for us to do other than paper work." Gibbs kept his eyes on her. He could tell she would've slept on her couch if he hadn't come in to see her. She had been a walking zombie for the past six hours.

"Hope Leon isn't expecting the files to be finished by end of day." Jack chuckled dryly. "Cause I can barely keep my eyes open let alone write a grammatically correct sentence."

Gibbs chuckled getting up from behind her desk and walking over to Jack. He sat down in front of her on the coffee table.

"Said we can go home and finish 'em tomorrow." Gibbs reached out and grabbed Jack's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Came 'ere to drive ya home."

"Thanks Gibbs but I think I can manage." She was lying. She really just wanted to be left alone to rest a little then work up the energy to drive home. Her gaze dropped to their hands, her reaction much slower than usual. They'd been too wrapped up in this case to have a moment to talk but things had been off before this case. Gibbs was distant, hadn't invited her over for drinks or steaks for the past month. Everytime she went to put her hand on his shoulder or chest as a comfort during a case, something that had become second nature to her, he had backed off slightly so she stopped doing so.

Gibbs watched as Jack looked down at their hands and furrowed her brow. Her sleep deprived state was making it more diffcult for her to hide how she was feeling. He squeezed her hand again to bring her back to him.

"Wasn't asking Jack." He stood up, still holding onto her hand and he tugged her up before dropping their hands.

Jack wasn't going to argue. She couldn't think of anything good to shoot back with so she grabbed her coat and locked up her office before following Gibbs out.

She tried her best to stay awake the short drive to her place but her eyelids betrayed her right before turning down her street.

"Jack -" Gibbs yawned, squeezing her knee to wake her up.

"Guess you were right." Jack looked over at his very tired but smug smile.

"Usually am." He chuckled looking into her dark brown eyes. There was something there that she was really trying hard to hide but he got a glimpse of something. "Something on ya mind Jack?"

"Oh there's a lot of things floating up around in here but nothing important right now." She could tell he was trying to pry something out of her but with both of them running on fumes he wasn't going to push.

"Ok." The mood changed and he looked back out the front. Trying to find something interesting to distract him but it was late and dark. He really wasn't wanting to play this game again right now.

"Ok, thanks for the lift." She narrowed her eyes at him, why would he start this conversation again now? Of all the times. So Gibbs she groaned, always at the worst times.

"Something else?" He had waited for her to hop out but for some reason she was still in his car. Wasn't she tired? He was beginning to regret offering her the lift.

"Should there be?" She felt stupid, she was the one that deflected and now was throwing the ball back in his court.

"It's late Jack, been a hell of a few days. Thought you were tired." He let his head fall back and rest against the seat headrest. He turned his head towards her, watching her, seeing if she'd give away any other tells. He had been watching her a lot lately. Thankfully he hadn't been caught, at least he thought so.

After the last poker night, over a month ago, Jack had come over early and was helping him with his boat and downing some beers; then Fornell, Phil and Grace had shown up. They played a fun night of Poker. Jack had won the first round but Gibbs took the night out, getting all his money back from Jack. Which just made the sting even worse for Jack. Everyone had left except for Grace, she hung back after watching Jack and Gibbs bid goodnight.

She hung back to chat with him. Pointing out a few things she'd observed over the last few poker nights and especially that nights game. He hadn't noticed anything different between him and Jack but Grace pointed out her coming over earlier to "hang out" and then the looks and banter being thrown back and forth. It definitely increased when Leon wasn't there. And Grace was pretty sure Gibbs might've given up a hand to Jack only to give the sting of him winning even greater. Not that she mentioned that to him or Jack for that matter. She liked living and breathing.

It made Gibbs think about them a lot more. How they'd become so close so quickly compared to other work friends, how they'd opened up to each other more than anyone else. How he invited her over at least twice a week for drinks and steaks. It had gradually been progressing over the past year and he hadn't even noticed. Gibbs liked her being around, felt more relaxed and that scared him a bit when he actually stood back and thought about it. The last time he was so relaxed and, god forbid, happy around another person was many, many years ago.

"Am tired but you're giving me all sorts of mixed feelings right now." She saw his thoughts running across his eyes. He was thinking about something, something that made him uncertain. Gibbs was never uncertain about anything. Now she really wanted to know what was on his mind.

"Get some sleep Jack." He shook his head. She was analyzing him. Even when her brain was mush, she could read him.

"Typical." She said under her breath, opened the car door but felt a strong hand wrap around her arm stopping her from hopping out of the car. She swung around and found Gibbs hand holding her arm just above her elbow and his eyes were boring into her. So, her comment hadn't been as quiet as she had hoped.

"Spit it out." His tone came out frustrated which he was but he hoped it wouldn't scare her off. Not that he'd scared her off before or that she scared so easily.

"You're very touchy tonight Gibbs." She paused waiting to see if he would respond.

"What's that mean?" He dropped his hand, suddenly very aware of his actions and uncomfortable that she brought it up.

"It means-" Jack turned back around and closed the car door. The night air was cold. "That you've been dodging my usual touches not to mention we went from having a steak dinner once a week to nothing for the past month." Jack watched him go from frustrated with her to caught red handed. He thought she hadn't noticed the change. Clearly forgetting her obvious choice of profession and that her favourite muse was him lately.

"I've been-"

"Dont you dare say busy. The busiest we've been was the past four days and that never stopped you before." She was hoping it was both their tired states that was making Gibbs seem so off. He wasn't being his usual self. It was like their friendship had slipped back to the early parts of when she came to DC.

"Jack I-" He was having a really hard time finding the right words. His brain was now finally showing signs of needing sleep. He had pushed her to open up but he wasn't prepared for him opening up. To hell with it. He looked into her eyes and saw pain there. Pain he was causing her. She was so confused by his recent actions.

"Did I do something?"

"No." He shook his head. "God no Jack." He tested the water and reached over to hold her hand. She didn't back away, giving him a boost of confidence he didn't know he needed.

Jack looked from where he held her hand back up to his eyes. She was shocked to see such emotion in them. Something he'd been holding back.

"Jack after our last poker night Grace made me realize something." He saw her slight smile at the mention of Grace.

"Grace is good." It clicked then for Jack. It was the poker night. They had been extra cheeky and touchy between one another then of course Grace had said something to him. After all Jack had been seeing her for months and she'd told her about her feelings for someone but didn't mention him. Grace was a smart woman, probably didn't take her long to figure out that Jack was talking about Gibbs.

"Yeah." He laughed before continuing. " Told me what was right in front of my face but I was too blind to see it. Didn't want to see it. Didn't want to ruin a good thing."

"What would you ruin cowboy?" She was confused. How would anything be ruined by what she hoped he was getting to.

"This. Us." He moved his free hand back and forth between them. "Your friendship means a lot to me Jack."

"You aren't going to lose me Gibbs." She squeezed his hand. Hoping her words would hit and sink in.

"Never know. I – I really like you Jack." He bit the bullet and watched her face light up. Clearly he'd said something right.

"Thought I'd freaked you out or something that night or done something at work." She shook her head, why did they both over think everything and just not talk about it. Typical stubborn Jack and Gibbs.

"Nah, was in my own head." He smiled.

Jack just watched him for a moment. Taking in this moment but it was ruined by her body needing to yawn.

"Should let you go. Go sleep."

"Want to come up?" It seemed like the right thing to say just then but maybe it was too soon. After all him saying he really liked her could be just in a really good friend way. "Unless I miss interpreted th-"

Gibbs closed the gap between them and crushed his lips on hers. She was in her own head again and he just smiled into the kiss before drawing her in. Wrapping his hand around her neck, he deepened the kiss.

They pulled apart, resting their foreheads against one another. Jack dropped a quick kiss to his lips again before leaning back.

"That a yes?" She laughed when Gibbs hopped out of the car and jogged around to open her door. He held out his hand and she hopped out holding his hand and leading him up to her place.

"Hell yes." He nuzzled her hair when she searched into her bag for her keys. Bring his hands up to her waist.

"You're distracting me." She let herself lean back into his solid form.

"Making up for lost time." He felt Jack laugh and knew he'd do anything to hear it more often.

Jack could get use to this touchy-feely Gibbs.

. . . .

What'd you think? Any ideas of where this could go next is much appreciated and if I find inspo I'll right more to this otherwise it'll stay as a one shot. Really loved the scenes in tonights episode of NCIS. Please review, always nice to hear kind thoughts about my writing.


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